He’s probably the best pastry artist in the world, and consequently late last year Amaury Guichon became the most followed one on Facebook and Instagram. If you haven’t heard of the French pastry chef yet, take a quick browse through his accounts and you’ll instantly know why he has earned the praise of so many followers. Apart from the jaw-dropping images, you’ll find speeded up tutorials showing you how to make those oooh and aaaah creations.
His internationally renowned chocolate sculptures feature such intricate details that they seem more like works of art than food, although they do taste delicious too. They range from unbelievable architectural designs and gorgeous flowers to an almost life-size cherry blossom tree. The 27-year-old prodigy, who is based in Las Vegas, has even made sculptures of a nautilus and a gramophone with functioning drawer and gilded ‘metalwork’ that saw him employing woodworking, metalworking and plastic-working techniques. Plus, there’s a chef-d'oeuvre of the Greek Titan God, Atlas, with an armillary sphere on his back, and they’re all made entirely out of the creamy brown confection. Whether he’s creating things that have never been done before or something we see around us all the time, there’s always an element of originality as well as technical perfection. As well as his realistic chocolate creations, Guichon also crafts china-like cakes and elaborate pastries.
Guichon, who works as a private consultant, grew up in France’s Haute-Savoie region, and from an early age it was clear he wasn’t interested in the curriculum offered at schools. At 14, he went to a vocational school and after a two-year cooking course in France’s Thonon-les-Bains, he was drawn to specialise in pastry. This led the young Guichon to move to Geneva, Switzerland for another two-year apprenticeship. He then went on to learn more advanced pastry skills at the prestigious Maison Lenôtre in Paris. Unsurprisingly, by the age of 21, Guichon was hired as the youngest executive pastry chef in Paris. The pastry master, who has racked up awards and honours like the Best Apprentice in France, has worked in Paris’s ultra-modern luxury chocolate shop and patisserie, Hugo & Victor. The third place winner of a French cooking show then went on to work at the Jean-Philippe Patisserie boutique in the Aria hotel, Las Vegas, owned by another famous French pastry chef, Jean-Philippe Maury. While he’s not indulging his gigantic number of social media followers, he teaches pastry masterclasses all around the world.
